Apparatus for forming wire coils



DQC. 2, 1947. R U 2,431,928

APPARATUS FOR FORMING WIRE COILS Filed larch 27, 1945 2 She ets-She et 21N VEN TOR.

Patented Dec. 2, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIICE APPARATUS FOR FORMINGWIRE COILS Armand J. Garreau, Newport, R. 1. Application March 27, 1945,Serial No. 585,136

The present invention relates to the manufac ture of wire in coil form.and has particular reference to an apparatus for the manufacture ofcoils of y re-determined non-circular shape.

The principal obiect of the invention is to provide an a paratus forwinding wire into helical non-circular forms.

Another object of the invention is .to provide an apparatus w ich may bereadily changed or adjusted to provide different helical non-circularforms for wire coils.

still another object is to provide an apparatus which is particularlysuitable fr winding wire coils into ornamenta forms suitable for jewelryand for general ornamental use.

With the above and other objects and advantageous features in view, theinvention consists of a novel arrangement of parts more fully disclosedin thedetailed description following, in conjunction with the accomanying drawings, and more s ecifically defined in the claims appendedthereto.

In the drawings,

Fig. l is a front elevation of an illustrative ap aratus embodying thenovel invention;

Fig. 2 is an end view thereof;

Fig. 3 is a section on the l ne 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view thereof, parts being broken away;

Fi s. 5 to 8 are illustrative perspective views of difi'erent shapes ofwire coils which may be formed w th the novel apparatus;

Figs. Fa to 8a are lan views of the corres onding dr ven ears utilizedto obtain the coils illustra ed in Figs. 5 to 8;

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of wire coil: and

F g. 10 is a view of the rotating arbor for produ ing the coil of Fig.9.

It has been found desirable to provide a sim le and inexpensive machinefor manufacturing wire coi s having an desired non-circular sha e. Tothis end, I prov de a machine which receives wire from a source ofsupply. such as a reel. and winds the wire around spaced pins on arotating arbor, the rotation of the winding arbor being intermittent toprovide periodic dwells, and the wire being bent and formed around thearbor p ns during the dwells of the arbor. Wire of any suitab e materialmay thus be coiled into a nona bow-shaped 2 Claims. (Cl. 153- -64) usedto form ornamental coils for display and similar uses.

Referring to the drawings, the wire forming apparatus I II isillustrated in Figs. 1 to 4, and include a base II on which a frontsupport plate l2 and a rear support plate I3 are mounted in spacedalignment. A winding arbor I4 is secured to the forward end of a stubshaft I5 which is circular shape, the individual coils being of unitheupper arbor suitably journalled in the front support plate, and isprovided with a plurality of spaced winding pins IS, the shaft l5 beingrotated by a spindle ll, through the medium of a detachable connectorl8, and the spindle I! having a driven gear IQ of special formationkeyed thereto.

As illustrated in Fig. 3,-the driven gear l9 has a number of ar'cuateslide portions 20 which are uniformly spaced around its perimeter, andis meshed with a drive gear 2| which has an arouate portion 22 adaptedto slide over the arcuate portions 20 of the gear IS, the drive gear 2|being keyed to a drive shaft 23 which is suitably-journalled in the rearsupport plate, and is in turn driven by a power gear 24 keyed thereto.The drive shaft 23 is direct connected to a plunger shaft 25 by aconnector 26, the plunger shaft 25 being suitably journalled in thefront support plate and having an off-center pin 21 at its forward end.The off-center pin-moves in a horizontal slot 28 ina slide plate 29 toreciprocate the slide plate, which is housed within a slide supportblock 30 secured to the forward side of the front support plate. Thelower end of the slide plate 29 is provided with a plunger 3|. which hasa terminal cam end 32 for periodica ly enga ging the wire and bending itaround the upper winding pin l6 as hereinafter described.

A second slide plate 33 which is similarl provided with a plunger 34 anda terminal cam end 35, is slidably mounted in a. guide block 36 which ispositioned on the forward side of the front support plate at an angle tothe guide block 30, see Fig. 2. and is actuated by a transverse shaft 3!and similar slot and eccentric in connection similar to the actuation ofthe first slide plate. The transverse shaft 31. see Fig. 4, isjournalled in the forward support plate. and is actuated by a spindle 38through a connection 39. The s indle 38 is iournalled in the rear suport plate and is rotated by a gear 40 keyed thereto and meshing withthe power gear 24.

The two slide plates are thus reciprocated in timed relation to therotation of the winding arbor, and the gears are set so that the twoterminal cam ends engage and bend the wire around pin I 6 each time thewinding arbor is at a stop or dwell interval, to thus obtain a positivebending forming of the wire into the desired shape. Fig. 2 shows theposition of the cam 'ends at a dwell interval, the wire 4! being fedthrough a suitable passage in a guide member 42, then between the frontbearing plate and a guide plate 43 which is mounted on and spaced fromthe front bearing plate, the wire then passing over the winding pins 18.The wire is preferably fed under a slight tension from a rotation andwith respect to each other, thus supply reel (not shown), in order toprevent over-running.

slide piungers move downwardly to bend and W form the wire around theupper pin. As the coil is progressively formed, it is pushed clear ofthe pins by the finger of an adjustable screw plate 44 and the finishedcoil passes clear of the machine and to a storage receptacle (notshown), through any suitable, guide, such as for example a tubular ortrough shaped channel.

When the winding arbor is in dwell position it is preferred to providean arresting means for holding the winding arbor spindle in dwellposition and against backward rotation; An illustrative construction isshown in Figs. 3 and e, and includes a friction drum 45 which is keyedto the winding arbor spindle and has stop notches 48; a leaf spring 41is mounted on a suitable transverse bar 48 secured to the front and backplates, the forward end of the spring resiliently resting on thefriction drum in positionto engage the stop notches and thus to hold thewinding arbor spindle during the dwell period.

It is clear that a fiat coil such as shown at 49 in Fig. 5 is formedwhen two diametrically opposed arbor pins are used, the driven arborgear 50 being shown in Fig.- 5a, and having two dwell portions 6i, andthe friction drum having two stop notches. The distance between thearbor pins determines the width of the formed coil,

and the slide plate plungers each are provided 56, see Fig. 7a, havingfour dwell places 58 and an octagonal coil 59, see Fig. 8, is formed byusing a drive gear 60 having eight dwell portions 01 as shown in Fig.8a. The other operating parts such as the number of pins on the windingarbor and the friction drums with the appropriate number of stopnotches. are correspondingly changed in the apparatus. If a specialshape for the spring coil is desired, such as for example a bow-shapesuch as designated 62 in Fig. 9 is desired, the winding arbor 83, seeFig. 10, is provided with spacing pins 64 in addition to the two windingpins 65, and the slide plate terminal end cams'are correspondinglyshaped so as to accurately form the desired coil shape.

producing unusual coil shapes such as progressive spirals, and that theapparatus may be adapted to shape any type of wire, such as solid,tubular, ribbon, or the like, and may be utilized to form coils of anymaterial which will retain a permanent set after bending and forming,such as lucite and other non-metallic substances, without departing fromthe spirit and the scope of the invention as defined in the appendedclaims.

I claim:

1. In a coil forming apparatus, a rotatable arbor having spaced wireguide pins extending therefrom, means for feeding a wire to wind oversaid pins, means for rotating the arbor, and for periodically stoppingthe arbor rotation to provide dwell intervals, reciprocable plungermechanism having cam ends adapted to move into engagement with the wireat one pin and to bend the wire about said one pin, and means forreciprocating the plunger mechanism in timed relation to the arborrotation to contact the cam ends with the wire and produce the wirebending during the dwell intervals.

2. In a coil forming apparatus, a rotatable arbor having spaced wireguide pins extending therefrom, means for feeding a wire to wind oversaid pins, means for rotating the arbor, and for periodically stoppingthe arbor rotation to provide dwell intervals, reciprocable plungermechanism having'cam ends adapted to move into engagement with the wireat one pin and to bend the wire about said one pin, and means forreciprocating the plunger mechanism in timed relation to the arborrotation to contact the cam ends with the wire and produce the wirebending during the dwell intervals, said reciprocable plunger mechanismincluding two plungers angularly positioned to engage the wire at eachside of said one pin.

ARMAND J. GARREAU.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 426,386 Kelly Apr. 22, 18901,585,905 Madden at al. May 25, 1926 1,715,046 Rogan. May 28, 19291,807,892 Brindle June 2, 1931 1,896,670 Gars't Feb. 7, 1933 2,205,171Kile et a1. June ,18, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 189,732Switzerland Aug. 16, 1937

